Montana AG Knudsen joins Keystone Pipeline lawsuit against Biden administration
(The Center Square) – Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen is joining Texas an 19 other states in a lawsuit that seeks to overturn the Biden administration’s cancellation of Keystone XL’s border crossing permit.
The lawsuit was filed last week in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas by Knudsen and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
“The power to regulate foreign and interstate commerce belongs to Congress – not the President,” Knudsen said in a media statement. “This is another example of Joe Biden overstepping his constitutional role to the detriment of Montanans. “There is not even a perceived environmental benefit to his actions – his attempt to cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline is an empty virtue signal to his wealthy, coastal elite donors. It shows Biden’s contempt for rural communities in Montana and other states along the pipeline’s path that would benefit from and support the project.”
The 1,700-mile pipeline, if finished, would span six U.S. states and carry about 800,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta, Canada, to the Texas Gulf Coast.
In one of his first acts in office, President Joe Biden rescinded a federal permit granted by former President Donald Trump’s administration allowing the pipeline’s construction. Biden cited environmental concerns in his order.
The project was estimated to create 42,100 jobs with $2 billion in associated earnings throughout the U.S..
Attorneys general from Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming also joined as plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
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